Sydney joined the Royal Navy on 24 Nov 1911. He was recorded at 5'4.5", with a 40" chest, brown hair, blue eyes and fair complexion when he joined. He also had a smallpox scar on his left eye. He was a Chatham based rating and undertook his initial training at HMS Pembroke at Chatham. His draft record is as follows:
HMS Pembroke 24 Nov 1911 to 17 Apr 1912 (Chatham - Shore Base)
HMS Russell 18 Apr to 6 Mar 1916 (Battleship) ^[1]
HMS Dolphin 7 Mar 1916 to 15 Aug 1916 ^[2]
HMS Titania (Sub L6) 16 Aug 1916 to 20 Oct 1918 ^[3]
HMS Dolphin 21 Oct 1918 to 4 Mar 1919
HMS Crescent (SC) 5 Mar 1919 to 2 Apr 1919
HMS Dolphin 3 Apr 1919 to 14 Apr 1919
HMS Vulcan (R10) 15 Apr 1919 to 9 Jun 1919
HMS Lancia 10 Jun 1919 to 20 Feb 1920
HMS Dolphin 21 Feb 1920 to 26 May 1921
HMS Pembroke II 27 Mat 1921 to 6 Oct 1921
HMS Tiger 7 Oct 1921 to 6 Apr 1922
HMS Pembroke 7 Apr 1922 to 7 Jun 1922
HMS Ramillies 8 Jun 1922 to 14 Jun 1923
HMS Pembroke 15 June 1923 to 22 Sep 1925
HMS Cleopatra 23 Sep 1925 to 8 Nov 1925
HMS Pembroke 9 Nov 1925 to 27 Nov 1925
HMS Yarmouth 28 Nov 1925 to 31 Jan 1926
HMS Hawkins 1 Feb 1926 to 12 Feb 1928
HMS Pembroke 13 Feb 1928
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He was promoted to 1st Class Stoker on 1 Apr 1913, and Acting Leading Stoker on 1 Feb 1921. On 26 Aug 1922 he was promoted to Petty Officer Stoker.
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^[1] Sydney's is first ship seagoing ship was the battleship HMS Russell between April 1912 and March 1916. In 1913, the Russell joined the 2nd Fleet at Nore. She later became flagship with the Grand Fleet in the North Sea in 1914 with the 6th Battle Squadron and then moved to the 3rd battle squadron to take part in northern patrols. In 1915, she sailed for the Dardanelles for the final part of the Gallipoli campaign, stayed on at Mudros, a small Greek port on the Mediterranean island of Lemnos, and then took part in the eventual evacuation of troops from Gallipoli in December 1915. Shortly after Sydney left her, on 27 April 1916, HMS Russell was mined 1916 just off the coast of Malta with the loss of over 100 lives.
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^[2] In March 1916, Sydney was drafted to HMS Dolphin, so I am assuming it was at about this time he decided to transfer to submarines.
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^[3] In August that year he was drafted to the submarine depot ship HMS Titania and served on the submarine J6. The J Class submarines were built under an emergency war program based by an erroneous report that the German Navy had U-Boats under construction capable of speeds of 18-20 knots. At that time the British Navy was experimenting with steam driven turbine powered submarines and as the J Class were only experimental, they were forced to design a fast submarine using existing technology. The J Class submarines suffered very few casualties during the war. However, one of the most tragic incidences of the war occurred when Sydney was one of it's crew. At 4.30 pm on the 15th October 1918, the Royal Navy Decoy ship Cymric mistakenly attacked and sunk the J6 off Blyth on the North east coast of England, with the loss of 16 men. It had mistakenly identified the J6 as the German U-Boat U16.
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I believe Sydney transferred from submarines to surface ships in 1921 and served on the battle cruiser HMS Tiger, torpedo boat depot ship HMS Vulcan, battleship HMS Ramillies, the cruisers HMS Cleopatra, HMS Yarmouth and finally HMS Hawkins.